Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: A longer turntable belt.
Post Subject: The part of the beltPosted by Paul S on: 12/17/2006
I am interested to determine from further reading if by "rubber" belts you mean anything as springy as rubber tubing or stapled bicycle tubes suggested by others. It has been my own finding that the older pro-quality recording tape is as good as anything for driving a TT, and even silk or dacron thread works better than any sort of bungee-type belt. I suppose that among other things this gets down to traction versus spring, and I am pretty sure that too much of the latter is always a bad thing in this particular application.
As for belt length, I have tried longer belts in order to move a drive motor away from the arm/cartridge, and I have listened to some 2-motor set-ups that used long belt free spans. None have worked well, IMO, with diminished bass being the most obvious problem, and a loss of coherence a less obvious but no less important problem.
I have the non-scientific impression that drive belt length is best kept to a practical minimum, and I have jumped to the wild tentative conlusion that a longer belt can develop a strong-enough-to-matter harmonic resonance and even, at times, a resonance-within-a-resonance, a sort of ocillating resonance, if that makes sense.
Not that I would care if it sounded OK; but it doesn't.
But then, I have not yet heard what I would term a successful installation of a giant motor driving a 100 lb. platter, either.
Best regards,
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site